Early work and films with François Truffaut (1960s) While at Dijon's Conservatory of Dramatic Art, in 1964 she played on stage 40 times the part of Agnès in
Molière's ''L'école des femmes''. In 1966 she won the Prix de Comédie for
Jean Giraudoux's stage play
Ondine, performed at the Comédie Boulogne. While performing as Frida in
Pirandello's
Henri IV, in a production by
Sacha Pitoëff at the
Théâtre Moderne, Jade was discovered by
New Wave film director
François Truffaut. He was "completely taken by her beauty, her manners, her kindness, and her
joie de vivre", American critic
Pauline Kael wrote that Jade "seems a less ethereal, more practical
Catherine Deneuve". Playing the same character at different stages of her life, Jade appeared in three Truffaut films: loved from a distance in
Stolen Kisses; married and misled in
Bed and Board (
Domicile Conjugal, 1970); and divorced but still on good terms in
Love on the Run (1979). Hitchcock said she resembled his former star
Grace Kelly, and in France she was a younger
Danielle Darrieux. Some of her scenes were deleted and restored for the director's cut of
Topaz in 1999.
Topaz was Jade's only Hollywood film.
Universal Pictures offered her a seven-year contract, which she turned down reportedly because she preferred to work in French. She had a leading role as Linda in
Sous le signe de Monte-Cristo (
Under the Sign of Monte Cristo) by
André Hunebelle, a modern version of
Alexandre Dumas'
novel. Here, the 19-year-old actress starred alongside French cinema veterans like
Pierre Brasseur and
Michel Auclair. Jade starred in
Édouard Molinaro's
My Uncle Benjamin (
Mon oncle Benjamin, 1969) alongside
Jacques Brel. As Manette she refuses Brel's advances until he produces a marriage contract. At the End Manette realizes she prefers happiness to a marriage contract after all. It was to have starred Jade as
Vaslav Nijinsky's wife, with
Rudolf Nureyev as Nijinsky and
Paul Scofield as his lover
Sergei Diaghilev. In 1970 she reprised her part as Christine from
Stolen Kisses in Truffaut's
Bed and Board as a married woman. The Truffaut films influenced her type as lovingly gentle modern young woman in contemporary cinema, which she contrasted in ambivalent figures: Critic
Vincent Canby praised her work in
Gérard Brach's
The Boat on the Grass (''Le bateau sur l'herbe
, 1971), in which she starred as Eleonore, a young girl who comes between two friends (Jean-Pierre Cassel, John McEnery). She starred in Hearth Fires (Les feux de la chandeleur'', 1972) as Laura, a daughter who wants to reconcile her parents (
Annie Girardot,
Jean Rochefort) and who falls in love with her mother's best friend (
Bernard Fresson). Alongside
Robert Hossein she played the priest's love, Françoise, in
Forbidden Priests (
Prêtres interdits, 1973). In
Home Sweet Home (1973), she played a hardened nurse who is changed by a love affair with a social worker (
Jacques Perrin).
2000s In her last decade, Jade's work included the TV movie
Sans famille (2000); the series
La Crim (episode "Le secret" in 2004), and
Groupe Flag (episode "Vrai ou faux" in 2005). She also appeared in an episode of the short film series
Drug Scenes (
Scénarios sur la drogue, episode "La rampe", 2000); and in the short
À San Remo (2004).
Theatrical work Jade was a member of Jean Meyer's theatre company in Lyon, appearing in plays by
Jean Giraudoux (
Helena in
The Trojan War Will Not Take Place, and Isabelle in
Intermezzo);
Henry de Montherlant (
Port Royal);
James Joyce (
The Exiles);
Racine (
Britannicus); and
Balzac (
Le Faiseur). She took roles in plays by
Vladimir Volkoff (
The Interrogation);
Catherine Decours (
Regulus 93);
Michel Vinaver (
Dissident il va sans dire),
Alfred de Musset (
Lorenzaccio) and others. She worked onstage in Lyon, Nantes, Dijon and Paris. Many plays were adapted for TV, such as her performances as Helena in
Shakespeares ''
Midsummer Night's Dream; her Sylvie in Marcel Aymés Les oiseaux de lune''; her Colomba in
Jules Romains's adaptation of Ben Johnson's
Volpone; her Clarisse in Jacques Deval's ''Il y a longtemps que je t'aime''; her title role in
Jules Supervielle's
Shéhérazade; and her
Louise de La Vallière in
Le château perdu. Her last stage role was as Célimène in Jacques Rampal's
Celimene and the Cardinal. ==Later life and death==